EXODUS, THE ĕk’ sə dəs (Gr. ἔξοδος, G2016, a going forth). The occasion upon which the Hebrews left Egypt under Moses.

I. Route

A. The main Biblical data. The main starting point of the Israelites is given as Rameses (Exod 12:37; Num 33:5), from which was named the “land of Rameses” (Gen 47:11), identical at least in part with Goshen (q.v.; cf. Gen 47:6). Thence, they moved to Succoth (see Pithom) for their first camp (Num 33:5; implied by Exod 12:37 plus 13:20; cf. phrasing of Num 33:6), and thereafter to Etham—first time—on the edge of the wilderness (Exod 13:20; Num 33:6).

Then the Hebrews were instructed to turn back from the wilderness-edge (i.e., instead of continuing eastward), so that the Pharaoh might be taught a sharp lesson in seeking to subdue them (Exod 14:1-4). Having so turned, their next camp was between Migdol and the sea (Exod 14:2, the sea later qualified in 15:22 as yam-suph, “sea of reeds,” the Red Sea of the Eng. VSS). This was also before Pi-ha-hiroth and Baal-zephon, by the sea (14:2, 9; Num 33:7). Having proceeded from W to E without encountering a “sea” previously, they would “turn back” either northward or southward somewhat, from the wilderness edge, and so come to a “sea” and the neighborhood of the three places named. In the Pharaoh’s eyes, they were “entangled in the land,” shut in (to Egypt) by the wilderness.

At this juncture came the crossing through the wind-divided waters of the “sea” (Exod 14:21ff.), which brought the Israelites back eastward into the wilderness of Shur (15:22) with waterless travel for three days to Marah. Significantly, this wilderness is identified as that of Etham (Num 33:8)—so, coming here a second time, the Hebrews had made a circuit. Schematically, their route would appear as follows (A: turning N; B: turning S):—

They were explicitly kept away from the way of the land of the Philistines, the direct Egypt-to-Gaza route near the Mediterranean coast, and so would have to take a more southerly route within the Sinai peninsula. On this consideration, pattern A is more meaningful than B, as A permits the Hebrews simply to continue in a southeasterly direction for Sinai, while B would land them back on the forbidden N coast route unless they further performed a sharp U-turn (not reflected by the narratives) to bring them back S again for Sinai.

B. Topographical background evidence. The starting point, Rameses, would seem beyond any reasonable doubt to have been located either at Tanis/Zoan or near Qantir 27 km. (seventeen m.) SSW. Although Tanis has hitherto been the more popular identification, Qantir would appear to be preferable on both archeological and topographical grounds. None of the quantity of Ramesside monuments at Tanis were actually found in place—all had been reused by later kings who appear to have brought them as quarry-material from elsewhere. At Qantir, evidence of palaces, the houses of high officials, temples and houses for military personnel has been found of a kind that is clearly not brought from elsewhere or (like a well of Ramses II) is definitely in situ. Geographically, Raamses (Egyp. Pi-Ramessē) in Egyp. documents stood on the “Waters of Ra” in a fertile district—true of Qantir, but not of Tanis. See [http://biblegateway/wiki/Raamses, Rameses (city) RAAMSES (city)]. Therefore, with a high degree of probability, one may place Rameses as the starting point of the Exodus in the district of Qantir-Khatana. This fits well with the general location of the land of Goshen which was also in some measure the “land of Rameses” (Gen 47:6, 11). This latter phrase itself corresponds in some degree to the Egyp. name of Rameses, namely Pi-Ramessē, “Estate/domain [not merely ‘house’] of Ramses”—i.e., to the whole territory attached to the king’s city, itself named after him. Among other tasks unspecified, the Hebrews in this area (Goshen, q.v.) had to labor on the building of both Raamses and Pithom (Exod 1:11) and so it seems in order to infer that Pithom should also be within reach of Goshen and Raamses. Pithom is most prob. to be sought in the Wadi Tumilatat either Tell el Maskhuta (with Succoth) or westward therefrom at Tell el Rotab (see Pithom). The latter possibility in particular would place Pithom quite near the S end of Goshen, while Raamses at Qantir would be at its N end, Goshen itself extending along the territory on the E of the Waters of Ra (Bubastite-Pelusiac, the eastern arm of the Nile). A location of Raamses at Tanis rather more N would perhaps be too far N to fit these requirements, and would extend the first day’s march of the Heb. multitude to up to fifty m., an unconvincingly high figure.

From a Raamses at Qantir, two routes lay before the Hebrews, a fact perhaps reflected by an inscr. of an earlier epoch (12th dynasty) from near Qantir and mentioning the settlement Ro-waty, “Mouth of the Two Roads,” i.e., the place where these roads diverged: text in S. Adam, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’ Egypte, LVI (1959), 216, 223 and pl. 9; cf. Kees, Mitteilungen, Deutschen Archäol. Instituts, Kairo, XVIII (1962), 1-13, and van Seters, The Hyksos (1966), 141. The first road thence was the main route to Pal. going NE to Qantara and ancient Sile (Tjaru) and so by the way of the land of the Philistines to Gaza and Canaan, but this was forbidden to the Hebrews (Exod 13:17). The second way was to go SE from the Qantir district across uncultivated semi-desert terrain that extended between the main Pal. route in the N and the Wadi Tumilat on the S (cf. frontispiece map of Baedeker’s Egypt, for the terrain). This would bring the Hebrews to Succoth (Tell el Maskhuta) near modern Ismailia, and then eastward into the wilderness proper and to Sinai. This was the “way of the wilderness” expressly taken by the Hebrews (13:18), and so too by two Egyp. slaves pursued from the Delta-residence to Succoth and beyond, in Papyrus Anastasi V, cf. ANET, 259b. Hebrew Succoth corresponds well to Egyp. Tjeku; at Tell el Maskhuta, this would make a first day’s march of some twenty or so m. from just E of Qantir as Raamses.

The second day’s march was perhaps briefer (fifteen to eighteen m.?), prob. ENE toward the desert now E of the Suez Canal and the El Gisr ridge, and so to the wilderness proper, named Etham or Shur. Etham is a name that lacks any convincing identification in the Egyp. texts. It can hardly be Egyp. khetem (ḫtm) “fort,” because Heb. ’aleph-breathing is a different sound, much weaker than Egyp. ḫ. Nor is it the ’Idm of Papyrus Anastasi VI, 55 (ANET, 259a), as Heb. t appears in Egyp. as t, not d. ’Idm is most likely Edom. However, within the Biblical data, the tacit equation of Etham with Shur (15:22 plus Num 33:8) is a useful indication. For the wilderness of Shur was also on the main routes into Egypt from Pal., i.e., on that from Gaza, El-’Arish and via Qantara into Egypt, and that which branched off S to pass into Egypt via Ismailia and Wadi Tumilat. (See Gen 25:18; 1 Sam 15:7; and esp. 27:8.) Thus, the wilderness of Shur/Etham (Etham, its western edges?) as extending N-S from the Mediterranean to about the latitude of Lake Timsah by Ismailia, and W-E from about the El Gisr ridge (and Suez Canal) perhaps much of the way toward El-’Arish and the “Brook of Egypt.” This means that when the Israelites doubled back from the wilderness, went along by the “sea” and crossed it only to return to this same wilderness, they more prob. did so northwards from Ismailia rather than from S of it, as they thereafter went on to Sinai (scheme A, above, rather than B).

Therefore, it is possible to suggest that when the Hebrews “turned back” (Exod 14:2) from Etham, they did so by going back NNW, then N (and not SSW and S, toward Suez). If so, then Migdol, Pi-ha-hiroth and Baal-zephon would be nearer to Qantara in the N than to Suez in the S. The yam-suph would not be the Red Sea of today; this is no problem, as the Heb. term corresponds to Egyp. tjuf, “papyrus,” and should here be rendered “sea of reeds” (see Red Sea). The Sea of Reeds would appear to be water bordered by reed-swamps in which papyrus might grow; this would fit in with the SE edges of Lake Menzaleh and the adjoining lakes that once occupied the line of the Suez Canal (Lake Ballah and southward). Thus, the Israelites prob. went N as far as the neighborhood of Lake Ballah (or its pre-Canal equivalent). If Baal-zephon is the later Tahpanhes (and Gr. Daphnai) as is quite likely, its location at Tell Defenneh (barely fourteen km. or eight and a half m. from Qantara) would be compatible with the situation of the Hebrews. The best-attested occupation of Tell Defenneh is later (26th dynasty, 7th-6th centuries, b.c.), but Ramesside-period remains were found there. A later Phoen. papyrus speaks of “Baal-zephon and all the gods of Tahpanhes” (N. Aimé-Giron, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, XL [1941], 433ff.). Migdol (q.v.) would then be an Egyp. fort on the desert land W of Lake Ballah, so far unidentified, and could not be the Migdol of the prophets, nearly thirty km. (eighteen m.) NE of Qantara, far out on the wrong side of the “sea.” The name is a common Sem. word for “fort,” “watchtower,” taken over by the Egyptians in the New Kingdom, and there was a plurality of such places.

Pi-ha-hiroth cannot be closely identified geographically at present, but may be attested in Egyp. sources as Pa-ḥir, “the Ḥir-waters” (a canal or lake). In Papyrus Anastasi III, 2:9, Pa-ḥir is set in parallel with Shihor (old Pelusiac Nile-arm), producing natron and (3:4) flax (ANET, 471, as “Her canal”). It therefore had salt marshes and fresh water lands in common with the Sea of Reeds, and was prob. near Shihor and yam-suph as was true of Heb. Pi-ha-hiroth. In this latter name, Pi may be Heb. “mouth” (cf. Egyp. ro) for “mouth of the Hiroth (canal?),” or else it might conceivably stand for Egyp. Pi(r), “house/estate,” as in Pithom, Pi-Beseth, hence “domain of the Ḥiroth.” The name could appear simply as Ḥiroth (Num 33:8; no emendation needed). For the relation of Heb. Ḥiroth to Egyp. Ḥir, cf. that of Heb. Succoth to Egyp. Tjeku. Pa-hir had a royal temple vineyard under Sethos I (Spiegelberg, in Zeitschrift für Aegyptische Sprache, LVIII [1923], 28; VI, 31). His successor Ramses II even had a daughter named Hent-pa-ḥir (‘Mistress of Pa-hir’), cf. Lefebvre, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, XIII (1914), 202:XXIII. (The Pi-Qerehet of Naville, the Pi-Hathor of Clédat, and the Hr and Phrt canals of Papyrus Anastasi III, 2:7 are all unacceptable as equivalents of Pi-ha-hiroth on philological grounds, while the Pa-ḥrn or Pa-ḥrm of Wadi Tumilat is too far S and too close to Succoth to fit the Exodus narrative.) With the relation of Pi-ha-hiroth to Baal-zephon (Exod 14:2), one may conceivably compare the occurrence of the [Waters..ḫ..] of Baal in Pap. Anastasi III, 2:8, shortly before its first mention of Pa-ḥir.

One may suggest that the famous crossing of the waters took place somewhere in the region of the present Lake Ballah; the phenomenon of the winds and waters is not unknown in modern times (cf. Ali Shafei, Bulletin de la Société royale de Géographie d’Ēgypte, XXI [1946], 278 and figs. 10, 11). Going on SE and S from such a crossing, the Hebrews under Moses would then find themselves back in the wilderness of Shur and Etham. Three days later (or, on the third day?) they reached Marah, which on such a time scale might well be as far S as the traditional ’Ayun Musa, some nine m. SE of Suez, on the Sinai side of the Gulf.

Naturally, the foregoing suggestion of a possible route of the Exodus remains in some degree tentative, but it will serve to show how well the extant Biblical data fits into the background setting as they stand; one has no need of an appeal to documentary hypotheses to solve the problem, like that offered in a welldocumented study by Cazelles in RB, LXII (1955), 321-364.

II. Date

A. Introduction. During the later 19th cent. and the first half of this cent., many dates have been suggested for the Heb. Exodus from Egypt. Two in particular have enjoyed some prominence. An “early” date for the Exodus placed that event in the mid-18th dynasty under Amenophis II c. 1440 b.c., reckoning his predecessor Thutmose III as pharaoh of the oppression; the initial conquest of Canaan under Joshua then came c. 1400 b.c. (temp. Amenophis III). The main basis of this scheme was a linear interpretation of the 480 years between the Exodus and Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings 6:1), and largely so for the data on the intervening period in Joshua-Judges, etc. A “late” date for the Exodus commonly placed it in the 19th dynasty under Merneptah, with Ramses II as pharaoh of the oppression; the conquest of Pal. would then begin c. 1200 b.c. or later. The starting point was the name of Rameses (Gen 47:11; Exod 1:11). However, neither view today seems really satisfactory; instead, one may suggest an intermediate solution, covering most of the data. No totally complete solution is yet possible, because of the lack of fully adequate data. Other famous events of ancient Near Eastern history are equally difficult to date definitively for much the same reason, so the Biblical student is in good company here.

B. The Egyptian data and background

1. Specific OT data. The Exodus was from Egypt; the OT accounts do not name the Egyp. kings involved with the Hebrews, but merely refer to them as “Pharaoh.” One more specific datum is the names of the “store-cities” in Exodus 1:11, Pithom and Raamses. If these can be located, archeological light on their history would help, and in the second case the very name Raamses is that used by some eleven to thirteen kings of Egypt (see Ramses, King). Of these kings, Ramses III to XI (and still later, Ramses-Psusennes) can be eliminated on date: all reigned later than c. 1200 b.c. and too late for any reasonable date for the Exodus. They are also later than the Israel stela, attesting the presence of Israel in Pal. in the late 13th cent. b.c. (see below), and this also excludes Ramses-Siptah. Ramses I reigned only sixteen months, so one is left only with Ramses II. He reigned sixty-six years and did build and adorn towns and temples named after himself, and is the only likely candidate to be the king reflected in the Heb. Raamses. However, this raises the question of the status of his name at Raamses. If this town can be located, was he really its builder, or did he (as some have suggested) merely re-name an earlier foundation? (Assuming also that the “second” name came into Heb. tradition, if not at the Exodus then much later on.)

Pithom (q.v.) lay somewhere in the Wadi Tumilat, in the SE Delta. There are two possible sites: Tell el Maskhuta and Tell el Rotab. Whichever is correct, the result archeologically is the same. Both chance finds and regular excavations have produced virtually nothing before the 19th dynasty at either site; see the lists in Porter & Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings, IV (1934), 53-55. Impressive monuments of Ramses II and later times came from both sites. Hence, it would be more natural for the Hebrews to be engaged on work at Pithom (whichever be its site) under Ramses II when major monuments were installed there, than under the 18th dynasty kings who appear to have manifested almost no interest in the Wadi Tumilat region (Porter & Moss, op. cit., IV, 53, have only some usurped traces at Gebel Hassa).

The situation for Raamses is similar. The two possible sites are either Tanis or Qantir, with archeological and geographical data increasingly favoring the latter, as noted above (Route). Again, the remains recovered from both locations tell a similar story. Middle Kingdom and Hyksos-age relics are followed by nothing else until the mass of monuments of the 19th and 20th Ramesside dynasties, see again Porter & Moss, op. cit., IV, 13-26 (Tanis) and 9, 10, 26, 27 (Qantir area, plus “Horbeit” monuments really from Qantir, cf. L. Habachi, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte, LII [1954], 514-526). So many of the Ramesside works are original (usurpations being from the Middle Kingdom) that one cannot support the theory that Ramses II had merely usurped those of the 18th dynasty, for at neither Tanis nor Qantir was there anything of consequence from that epoch for him to usurp. It would appear that Sethos I began the new residence city, but that Ramses II took it over and by his vast works made it his own in fact as well as name. The appellation of “store-cities” applied to Pithom and Raamses was prob. very apposite. Each stood on a main route from Egypt to Pal., and at Raamses the “Horbeit” stelae (so miscalled) show the existence there of military contingents, requiring arsenals and stores. Raamses was at once a summer residence, a base for military campaigns, and an administrative center alongside Memphis and Thebes.

In relation to Pithom and Raamses, there is good reason to place the Exodus no earlier than the early years of Ramses II, i.e., after either 1304 or 1290 b.c., the two alternative dates for that king’s accession. The term “land of Rameses” (Gen 47:11) is not an anachronism, because it is not put into the mouth of either Joseph or his pharaoh but is the phrase of the later narrator—a point frequently overlooked. If that narrator were a Moses in the 13th cent. b.c., the phrase in question would be entirely appropriate, a definition of Goshen in terms meaningful to his contemporaries. The use of the term “pharaoh” (q.v.) for the king, without personal name appended, is current usage precisely in the Ramesside age and soon thereafter; but from the 22nd dynasty onward, the usage of Pharaoh plus personal name (cf. Pharaoh Necho) came increasingly into fashion.

2. Other external data. The other limiting datum comes from outside the OT, from Egypt itself; the so-called Israel stela (cf. ANET, 376-378 and refs.). This inscr. is dated to the 5th year of Merneptah, successor of Ramses II, i.e., to either 1234 or 1220 b.c. (depending on the latter’s date). Its main theme is to commemorate Merneptah’s great victory in smashing a massive Libyan invasion of Egypt, but at the end he also claimed that the Hittites were pacified, Canaan purged, Ascalon conquered, Gezer held, Yenoam made as if non-existent, Israel destroyed as without seed (either grain or offspring), and Pal. (Khuru) is like a widow. These names are specific and concrete, not just vague boasts, and would seem clearly to place Israel squarely in W Pal. [by Merenptah’s 5th year]. These names would reflect a brief Palestinian campaign of Merneptah before his Libyan war. These apparently clear inferences and the data on which they are based have been doubted by some, but doubts of Merneptah’s veracity can be discounted in the light of a less famous monument. On a stela in the temple of Amada in Nubia, Merneptah has a specially elaborate titulary, calling himself in parallel clauses “Binder of Gezer” and “seizer of the Libyans.” Again, Gezer should reflect a specific event. “Seizer of Libya” is a clear allusion to Merneptah’s Libyan victory, and so one may legitimately expect an equally real exploit to appear in the parallel clause—here, the capture of Gezer in Pal., and so a campaign there in the course of which the Egyp. forces happened to brush with some Israelites, these already being in W Pal.

Occasionally, scepticism has been expressed as to whether the name on the Israel stela is actually Israel and not someone (or place) else, e.g., Jezreel, with Eissfeldt, CAH², II, ch. XXVIa (Palestine in Time of 19th Dynasty [1965], 14). Such doubts are totally unjustified, and such a reading is highly improbable in view of the close correspondence to the Egyp. term and the Heb. for “Israel” (cf. Kitchen, Tyndale Bulletin, XVII [1966], 90-92, and Ancient Orient and Old Testament [1966], 59, note 12). Hence, one may suggest that the initial phase of the conquest under Joshua could not well have begun any later than shortly before 1234 or 1220 b.c. Thus, the Exodus, forty years of wilderness sojourn and beginning of the conquest is best located on the evidence so far within the seventy years between 1304-1234 b.c. or 1290-1220 b.c.

Some further indirect confirmation of this result may perhaps be drawn from reliefs of Ramses II as Luxor temple at Thebes, illustrating a campaign in Moab. He records the capture of “Bwtrt in the land of Moab” (? later Raba-Batora), and of Daibon (i.e., Dibon of Mesha-stela fame). See Kitchen, JEA, L (1964), 47-70, esp. 50, 53, 55, 63-67, 69, 70. It is far easier to assume that Ramses II raided Moab before the Hebrews entered that area, than to envisage the pharaoh’s forces bursting into a district (e.g., Dibon northwards already populated by Israelite tribes [Reuben, Gad, Manasseh], cf. Num 21:21ff., etc.). The OT has no trace of such an event, nor does Ramses mention Israelites (as his son did, later) along with Moab and Seir. As the tradition of “all Israel” is both ancient and persistent (cf. Kitchen, Tyndale Bulletin, XVII [1966], 85-88), it is hard to justify the scepticism of Giveon (Fourth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Papers, I [1967], 194) concerning the application of the term “Israel” to the Trans-jordanian tribes, although the Egyptians certainly could have used more generalized or traditional terms like Shasu or Asiatic.

C. Exodus and conquest

1. Wilderness sojourn. For the travels of Israel in the wilderness, there exists only the Biblical account. There seems no warrant for doubting the reality of the forty years, first because it is made up of lesser specific amounts (e.g., thirty-eight years in Deut 2:14, plus short spans in Num, passim, cf. NBD 215), and secondly because the purpose of this period was expressly to allow a new generation to grow up in place of the one that had rebelled (Num 14:21-23; 32:9-13; Deut 2:14). So, forty years before the lowest possible date for Joshua’s initial campaigns gives 1274 or 1260 b.c. as the terminal date for the Exodus. Similarly, forty years below the highest possible date for the Exodus gives 1264 or 1250 b.c. as the highest date for Joshua’s opening campaigns. With Ramses II acceding in 1304, the Exodus would fall within c. 1304-1274 and initial conquest c. 1264-1234 b.c. On the 1290 date for Ramses II, the Exodus would fall within c. 1290-1260 and the conquest begin within c. 1250-1220 b.c. The generalized round figures of c. 1280 b.c. for the Exodus and c. 1240 b.c. for the beginning of Joshua’s wars would not be too far out in either case.

2. Data in Palestine. With these results one may correlate the Palestinian evidence. In Trans-Jordan, the early Iron-age kingdoms of Edom and Moab seem to have become real entities politically, ringed with forts, from c. 1300 b.c. onward, in contrast to the earlier conditions with the area mainly left to nomadic tribes and occasional settlements on some routes (cf. N. Glueck, Other Side of the Jordan [1940], and further references, etc., in Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testament, pp. 43, note 40 and 61 note 16). Thus, for Edom and Moab to oppose Israel (Num 20:14-21; Judg 11:17), one would prefer the Hebrew passage of Trans-Jordan to occur after c. 1300 b.c.

In W Pal., the evidence for several sites would seem to agree with this result. This is so at Tell Beit Mirsim (? Debir), Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir), Bethel (Beitin), Tell el Hesi, and esp. Hazor (Tell el Qedah). The final destructions at Canaanite Debir and Lachish could represent the exploits of Caleb after Joshua’s campaigning. An important point is the change of culture visible when some of these sites were reoccupied (refs., Kitchen, op. cit., 66/68 notes 37, 45). In this picture, only Ai and Jericho appear to cause real difficulty. But there is no proof that Et Tell (destroyed c. 2400 b.c.) is Ai rather than Beth-Aven (see Grintz, Biblica, XLII [1961], 201-216), and the real Late Bronze Age Ai may yet await discovery. At Jericho, heavy denudation of the long-unoccupied mound has apparently destroyed nearly all of the Late Bronze levels, along with much of the Middle Bronze. Hence, the Palestinian evidence is incomplete but is not incompatible with the other data.

D. Wider aspects. The 430 years between Jacob’s entering Egypt and the date of the Exodus (Exod 12:37; 12:41 eliminates the LXX 215 years); if it be reckoned back from roughly 1280 b.c., would set Joseph and Jacob at c. 1700 b.c., in the period of the late 13th dynasty leading into the Hyksos period. Such a date would be feasible on independent grounds (patriarchs with early 2nd millennium background; Egyp. conditions then). The 480 years of 1 Kings 6:1 does not so obviously correspond with the 300 or more years from about 1280 to c. 970 b.c. However, 480 is not the Biblical figure, but only one Biblical datum alongside others. Adding up the available figures in Exodus to 1 Kings gives not 480 but 553 years plus three unknown amounts, whereas David’s genealogy in the Book of Ruth seems short for the period involved. The genealogy of Zadok the high priest (1 Chron 6:3-8) of ten generations would fit well into the roughly 300 years here invisaged. A short genealogy like David’s may be selective. A larger total like the 553 years may contain partly overlapping items (e.g., judgeships), and the 480 be a portion of it. It is instructive to compare from Egypt the 500-odd years of Dynasties 13 to 17 that are known to fit into the 240 years or so between the 12th dynasty (ended 1786 b.c.) and the early years of the 18th dynasty (c. 1550 b.c.); only Judges 11:16 does not readily fit into the picture here suggested, but it requires further study.

Attempts to utilize references to the Habiru have proved rather sterile, because the term is too wide, ranging in ancient sources from c. 1800 to 1150 b.c., over the whole area of Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Syria-Palestine and Egypt; and conditions in the Amarna tablets do not correspond with those in the Book of Joshua, and so throw no direct light on the conquest period.

Bibliography On specific points, see above in text. An outline review of older views will be found in C. de Wit, The Date and Route of the Exodus (1960). For a compact but fully-documented treatment of the date of the Exodus, see K. A. Kitchen, Ancient Orient and Old Testament (1966), 57-75.